Contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme in North-West have demanded that the federal government ease the conditions for securing housing loans.

The federal government introduced the NHF scheme to enable contributors, mostly civil servants, to secure flexible loans to build their own houses.

Speaking to journalists in Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Katsina states, stakeholders advocated a complete review of the scheme to serve the purpose for which it was initiated or, in the alternative, scrap it completely.

They argued that not only was the process of securing loans too cumbersome, but the requirements were also hardly met by a majority of civil servants, thereby defeating the laudable objectives of the scheme.

“All the years I spent in the Federal Civil Service, I could not secure a house despite all the contributions I made from my salary,” Aliyu Musa, a retired federal civil servant in Gusau, told journalists.

Another contributor in Gusau, Abubakar Usman, lamented that securing access to NHF facilities was always a herculean task and therefore called on the federal government to restructure the scheme to make things easy.

A widow in Gusau, Maryam Adeniyi, also made similar call, recollecting how her late husband who was a contributor could not access the housing loan despite several efforts.

Musa Lemu, a retired federal civil servant in Sokoto, lamented that securing a loan was tedious, thereby depriving the scheme of the advantages derivable from its implementation.

Adamu Suleiman, a staff of the Federal Ministry of Information, Sokoto, said he received alerts on deductions regarding his NHF savings in peace-meal.

He said when he approached the Sokoto office of Mortgage Bank for a housing loan, he was told that only the bank headquarters could process the same.

“Scarcity of the application forms, superfluous and discouraging requirements and processes are issues that need to be addressed for the Scheme to record maximum success; there is a need for constant sensitisation on how the system operates,” Usman Shehu of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Birnin Kebbi, said.

In his contribution, Hamisu Abubakar of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Birnin Kebbi, observed that civil servants benefiting from the scheme were negligible and therefore called for its scrapping.

“As far as I am concerned, the scheme is a failure; some people are using the funds for their benefits at the expense of Nigerian workers; the scheme should be scrapped”, he insisted.

Arguing along the same line, Mohammed Iliyasu of Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Birnin Kebbi, alleged that the scheme was bedevilled by insincerity and corruption, just as he acknowledged that the motive for initiating it, was laudable.

Yusuf Abdulkarim of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Katsina office, said the scheme was not living up to the contributors’ expectations.

On her part, Uwani Rabe advised the federal government to fine-tune the scheme to have the desired impact, just as she also noted that conditions for securing loans were stringent.

Also, another respondent in Katsina, Ibrahim Danlagos, suggested that participation in the scheme be made optional.

“Participation should not be made compulsory for civil servants, rather, it should be optional; the way it is now, its like workers are being coerced to contribute, which should not be so”, he said.

Some residents of Kaduna also decried the lack of easy access to loan facilities of NHF, saying the procedure involved in securing same was cumbersome.

Larai Usman, a civil servant, said she filled a housing loan form from NHF two years ago, but was yet to get any positive response.

Danjuma Jato, a teacher in Kaduna, said the requirements for securing the facilities were rather stringent, saying his application was rejected because he was still servicing a loan from a commercial bank.

Also, Rose Ishaku, an entrepreneur, urged the federal government to review the conditions for securing the loan to enable eligible Nigerians benefit from the scheme.

On his part, Felix Ayina, a civil servant in Kaduna, said although he had been contributing to the Fund, his salary was too meagre to meet family needs. As such, securing any loan would be an additional burden on him.

Making the same appeal, some civil servants in Kano state urged the federal government to restructure the scheme to reduce the bureaucracy in accessing housing loans.

(NAN)